NC is KILLING Portland St in the paint, especially on the offensive glass. FT shooting sucks right now, an both teams missing easy shots. Portland St looks bored. Bears actually look refreshed and much quicker on D then the last few games. Should be an interesting 2nd half.

Wow...Portland State did not get the memo that this was the start of conference play. Portland St looked bored and lethargic and NC looked like they had a extra bounce to their step. I know Portland St D was bad, but wow it is REALLY bad. They do OK when they play man, but when they go in a zone look, especially a vs a team like NC, they got KILLED. Bears got Proctor back (energy guy) and he really seemed to have an impact on the team's intensity. Vikings are gonna have to really step their game up or they are going to be battling Sac St for the cellar. However, they looked much better in the 2nd half.

I have been wondering why Bietzel has played PG so much this year, and not Llyod. Tonight LLyod played about 90% of PG duties and let Bietzel move and score. Less turnovers and more effective on offense. Lets see if if Hill stays with this.

Bad FT shooting by both teams and too many missed shots from the Vikes killed the Over. Also, NC seemed to really slow the tempo down after about 12 min left in the 2nd.

12/29 Results: Big road win for Missouri State, finally. Loss of Dillard to Weber State pretty much ends their Big Sky chances I believe. Mike Brey with a week to prep and I lay off, LOL. Northern Colorado showed up, Portland State defense is pretty awful. UCLA looked pretty good for once, and St. John’s with a big win. Rough loss for Evansville, and it’s not going to get any easier. First three road games in the Valley, @Wichita State, @Northern Iowa, @Missouri State.

Sides: 34-20, +17.70

Totals: 22-10, +10.70

DNP: 41-32

12/30 Non-Conference Notes: Pepperdine’s style allows opponents to get up many shots, and aside from the snail paced game against Cal Poly, their opponents have fired up 65, 61, 61, and 60 their last four games. Miami FL hasn’t really been all that impressive against their recent mid-major test, but they have gone up against different styles of team oriented basketball, which is different than the hectic style Pepperdine will bring in this afternoon. Not interested in the Temple/Villanova matchup, just one of those games I’d rather enjoy watching and learning. Toledo and UNC Wilmington gets my nod for snooze-fest of the night. BYU at Buffalo just doesn’t make sense at this point in the season. Buffalo is 5-0 at home, but they haven’t played anybody worth mentioning. Just a really dumb scheduling spot for BYU when you go to UNLV in less than a week. Travel across country, then come back home for a Saturday game against a nobody before going to Vegas two days later. Doesn’t make sense, but opens up a nice spot on Wednesday for UNLV. I lean to the under in TCU and Tulsa. Just seems like a good spot for some flatness with Tulsa having a conference game in UTEP on deck. TCU is coming off two games in a row where they played two top 5 pace teams in the country in Chicago State and Northwestern State, so facing a tougher defense here should make for lower scoring. Both of these defenses are decent enough to make a difference here. Tough spot with both teams scoring so much, but I don’t expect it to continue. It’s pretty tough for TCU to come out and put up a similar performance than what they have been doing. It’s tough to play up and down and get any shot you want, then come in and face a disciplined team in Tulsa, and for that I point to the under. Scary though. I’ve commented on Iowa State and Virginia both being defensive ballclubs, and both come into this game at the peak of their season on the defensive end, and both should be fresh, so we should see a decent defensive ballgame...

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